[color=00ffff]”Destroying the place wasn’t on my mind until [i]you[/i] decided to chase me down, like you had a deathwish.”[/color] Ryder practically [i]spat[/i] the words out at him. [color=00ffff]”I could’ve been two thirds of the way to Newcastle by now, but you two had the bright idea to get in the way. You could’ve just left me the hell alone, but then you got a mob on your tail, so they got on [i]mine.[/i] then you drag me off to another hemisphere.”[/color]

She stood up, in spite of her injuries, rather suddenly. [color=00ffff]”The only reason I didn’t feel like wasting my [i]time[/i] in the first place was because I didn’t [i]care[/i] until you gave them enough of a chance to catch up with me.”[/color] That might not have been a very fair assessment of the situation, but it was the one that Ryder believed was true. To her, she could’ve escaped and would have been long gone before Umbra had their shit together in the wake of her system-wide attack. But the time they had control of the place, and verified there wasn’t an outside party hacking their systems, Ryder could’ve been in an entirely different country.

But what would she have done [i]then?[/i] The world didn’t know she existed. She had no friends here or in the outside world. It would just be her, running for her entire life until she [i]possibly[/i] found someone she could trust. Assuming, of course, Ryder’s ability to trust people wasn’t further eroded at such a point in the future.

Her tea was getting cold.

[color=00ffff]”So, I’ll ask you again. Why should I stick around when I don’t want to?”[/color]